Hey guys, hope you can help me out,

I've been flying a 2 string flexifoil for about 10 years now, and decided recently to move up to 4 string, took the kite out today for the 1st time and found that my back strings didn't seem to be making any difference, it just felt like flying my 2 string, I did notice a good bit of bend in the back strings tho, exactly how should the back lines look?

Altector

Hey welcome to the forum
:tumble:

10 years now and you still call them strings , string is what you tie packages with, kites fly on lines:evil:

the others bottom lines help with the turning rate by applying a bit of break pressure that warps the wing to give it a tighter radius, down turn are faster than upward turns and loads up hard.

you want to only have enough slack in the break lines to bring the wing straight down wind w/o folding up on you, to much break line will make it difficult in forward flight ,like launching once you find the correct setting you know the difference...

once again welcome and lets us know how its going & don't hesitate to ask :?:

maybe you have the lines backwards(power on brake ,brake on power).

Just in case... power lines are the thicker ones, brake lines are thinner

Yes, and the rear lines don't really have much of a difference other than turning and landing. They help both of them. There will usually be a bit of slack in the rear lines when it sits still. Good luck!

Thanks, well they don't make any difference to the kite at all, so I guess the are def to slack, off out again today, will shorten them a bit and see how that goes...

and yeah, I have the lines the right way around. (did something right :p)

Stu

If you shorten them too much you will find the kite won't want to fly overhead anymore + you will likely end up doing spirals.

There will still be a little slack in them when properly set.

What make and model of kite is it ?

It's an Eolo Radsail 3m, pretty much a beginners kite, like I said, this is my 1st 4 line, so wanted a bit of practice before anything too serious.

On another note I shorted the back strings by about 1 foot in the end, and found that it worked a lot better, now they still have a little slack, but visably make a difference when I fly the kite.

Thanks for the help!

That's not a bad starter kite. Keep tinkering with those back lines. You will find the sweet spot and you'll know when you have it. Too far and the issues I mentioned will start to appear. Too little and they won't be effective.

The brake lines should fly with a bit of slack. Does the Nasa have multiple knots on the brake lines to adjust with? If not, you could tie a couple of knots on the leader lines coming out of the handles, this effectively shortens the power lines, giving more slack in the brakes. Different wind conditions require different settings on most kites, and whenever the kite isnt flying the way I want it to, the brakes is the first thing I adjust (after making sure the bridle is in good shape).

If you look close in this pic, the brake lines are pretty slack, and they were on the tightest setting (pretty high wind, I want more brake control, usually)

Brake Slack